Bangka Island (North Sulawesi) - Trip & Photos Report

[Wingy]

No Astralmind that is Bangka Billitung off Sumatra (Bangka means tin) - although I guess you could shudder and imagine that will be Bangka Sulawesi in a couple of decades.

How long will it take? thats a how long is a piece of string question. I would assume there are no environmental impact studies in existence of any credibility nor any environmental controls on the mine of any significance. If a plan of the mine was available you may be able to calculate run off given stream flow in the immediate area, dust by volume per vehicle, dust by detonation if that is the method they will use for strip mining and volume of CO2 per hectares of jungle lost.....Biodiversity loss will be even harder to gauge because of the density and remoteness of the center of the island. There are cuscus there but what else and in what numbers?

I dont think the information is available to make an educated guess. From looking at data from similar mines on other islands it seems around 18 months is when the damage begins to be noticeable. Its probably way before then when it actually does. Not an easy question to answer.

 

[astralmind]

No Astralmind that is Bangka Billitung off Sumatra (Bangka means tin) - although I guess you could shudder and imagine that will be Bangka Sulawesi in a couple of decades.

How long will it take? thats a how long is a piece of string question. I would assume there are no environmental impact studies in existence of any credibility nor any environmental controls on the mine of any significance. If a plan of the mine was available you may be able to calculate run off given stream flow in the immediate area, dust by volume per vehicle, dust by detonation if that is the method they will use for strip mining and volume of CO2 per hectares of jungle lost.....Biodiversity loss will be even harder to gauge because of the density and remoteness of the center of the island. There are cuscus there but what else and in what numbers?

I dont think the information is available to make an educated guess. From looking at data from similar mines on other islands it seems around 18 months is when the damage begins to be noticeable. Its probably way before then when it actually does. Not an easy question to answer.

Thank you! Selfishly reassuring but still discusting.. I thought it was rather odd to see the magnitude of the operation on what I thought was a small island, didn't want to spread miss information!

Too few people actually care about biodiversity preservation.. it's sad.

 

[AlMitch]

According to what I've read so far the illegal miners have only just landed on the island with their gear. So they still need to build roads and then set up a camp and then start exploratory drilling. This could take anything from a few months to a few years. (Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.) Depending on what they find. Here's hoping they find very little!
So you should be perfectly safe from any mining impact in July. In fact it will take a few years for the full force of the destruction to be felt by the coral reefs around the island.

 

[BlueBayDivers]

hi all, alex is absolutly right. first of all, the chinese mining company is ILLEGAL with their mining plans on bangka ( north sulawesi) . the highest court indonesia ( MA ) decided so in september 2013, which is a big sucsess!
additional the save-bangka-alliance is working hard right now to get this RIGHT implemented. unfortunately things are slow in indonesia, especially in the year of election.
so please inform your self in the facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SaveBangkaIsland/
and help where and when help is needed.
thanks

 

[danz]

"A very very disturbing article about Bangka

Death metal: the island that's paying the price for your tablet (Wired UK)"

This is an article about Bangka near Sumatra

 

[BlueBayDivers]

"A very very disturbing article about Bangka

Death metal: the island that's paying the price for your tablet (Wired UK)"

This is an article about Bangka near Sumatra

yes, indeed, thats very sad. but this is NOT the bangka island in north sulawesi. Bangka Island North Sulawesi is still not mining ! and we hope it will stay like this.

 

[jake11]

Gorgeous photos!!! Spectacular color!!!

 

[indiedive]

Gorgeous photos!!! Spectacular color!!!

Thank you Jake